Les Italiens de Tunisie. La construction de l'italianité dans un contexte colonial français (1896 - 1918).

The Tunisian colonial society was characterised by a strong presence of Italian nationals who for a long time were the largest group of foreigners in the Protectorate, outnumbering, at least until the thirties of the 20th century, the French population. Even though the period between the end of the 19th century and the First World War has been understudied in the research on the Italians of Tunisia, in those years there was a strong immigration in the Regency and, at the same time, a reconfiguration of Italian colonial ambitions in Africa. The first part of the thesis explain the diachronic pathways of Mediterranean mobility which allowed the settling in the Beylicat of groups recognised as Italian nationals, after the political unification of Italy. In 1896, Conventions regulate the Franco-Italian diplomatic tension that had begun after the French occupation of Tunisia. This diplomatic agreement guarantees to Italian nationals the maintenance of national citizenship for children born in Tunisia, as well as the preservation of the associative and school network previously established. The second part analyses the structure and the social dynamics of associations and schools, which aim to build a sense of national belonging. The purpose of this associative network, managed by the upper-class and supported by the consular institutions, is to make the group of Italian citizens of Tunisia an Italian community within the Tunisian colonial society. Finally, the third part examines how the Tunisian production of extraterritorial Italianness overlaps both with Italian colonial ambitions and with processes of racialisation within the community. The Italo-Turkish war and the First World War are analysed as a vector of the nationbuilding in this community. The support of the Italians of Tunisia for the conquest and colonisation of Libya, and their military, social and economic engagement in the Great War, show us the project of a particular form of colonial Italianness formed within the French Protectorate of Tunisia.